I don't know why I bother keeping my old cookbooks around.

90% of the time, I just type in my ingredients and "recipe" into Google and see what comes up.  Or I'll have an idea about something I think will go well together and so I type the combination in just to see if it's been done, or what else might make it taste less "thrown together".

So today I have a couple of rotten pumpkins, some leftover Quinoa and a hankering for rice pudding.  I'm thinking of simmering it in a little whole milk with some flaked almonds and a bit of cardamom, but it never hurts to see what my other options are.

I prefer recipe sites with reviews.  Sometimes the recipe will get a bad rating, but reviewers will post substitutions or other tips for tweaking it.  Sometimes the reviewers are of no help whatsoever, but apparently feel the need to comment anyway:

This was fine, but not great. I used applesauce instead of bananas, and fat free milk with a little canola oil instead of whole milk, which seemed to work. Maybe it would have been better if I followed the recipe exactly, though.

I don't know.  Might as well say, "Well, I made chocolate pudding instead, but I'm still going to give this recipe a low rating".

For the record, everyone else gave the recipe excellent marks.  I'll let you know how mine turns out.

Comments

[Deb]

I have noticed the same thing, that I rarely use my cookbooks any more, I'm much more likely to ask google to find me something to cook. I have managed to reduce my cookbooks from almost 100 to about 50, but I need to cull more.

[Sahara]

:) Hehe, I've noticed the same thing Epicurious.com is one of my favorites, you can save recipes there and the ones I've found there turn out pretty well. And yes, in the comments section people are often useless. Crazy substitutions and low ratings because their unique recipe didn't turn out as expected. I've been craving rice pudding too. I have a really yummy Swedish rice breakfast porridge recipe that came from my American Girls cook book from when I was a kid. I've got to go see where that old book is. I'll be interested in how a quinoa version turns out.